Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY

Superb idea. RT @leftfootfwd Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY

RT @leftfootfwd Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY

NO, NO, NO! Stick to the script, guys. RT @leftfootfwd Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY << they don't have the balls.

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY

Completely wrong – ppl already understand tactical voting RT @leftfootfwd: Lab shld withdraw in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY

Utter rubbish. Labour has a duty to field a candidate in every seat in the country so that people have the choice of voting Labour. Let the people decide how they choose to exercise their vote. They are not fools – stop treating them as such. People know what the choices are.

A very astute and radical idea which obviously comes at least 3 weeks too late to make a difference to this campaign.

However…

It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a Tory minority government will attempt to push through its agenda and dare either the Lib Dems or Labour to bring the government down, thus forcing a second election within months.

This would suit the Tories, not least because they would have the £££ to fight such an election whereas Lab and the Lib Dems wouldn’t.

In such a situation and with a new leader, Labour should come to an agreement with the Lib Dems on a program for government and not compete against each other in certain seats to ensure the Tories are beaten and progress can be made on real constitutional change.

Would either party have the balls though?

A really interesting idea. I tried this in 1906 and it worked a treat.

Poor old Alex Salmond – banned from the “Prime Ministerial Debates” – because he was not standing across all UK constituencies. Wonder what he’ll make of this idea?

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals: http://bit.ly/abFJsY

Much as I do not want a Tory government, in denying choice to the electorate, I think it would be profoundly undemocratic, particularly when the true extent to which the Lib Dems are really a progressive party economically as well as socially is still very unclear. It’s not a given that a Labour supporter would necessarily vote Lib Dem if there was no Labour candidate in every marginal constituency.

I also think doing this unilaterally without a similar agreement with the Lib Dems would be suicidal for Labour when Nick Clegg has already stated that total overall vote would in his view provide a greater mandate than the number of MPs. Given the Lib Dems’ performance in local government, I would be very worried about Labour handing them a mandate which they will then use to determine matters in favour of the Tories, either by actively supporting a Tory government or refusing to cooperate with Labour or forming a coalition with Labour in which the cost is too high in terms of progress on issues of social justice.

I disagree with this too, but not necessarily for such lofty reasons. The bottom line is, it will backfire. The media will accuse Labour of being cynical and desperate, and Nick Clegg will probably make a similar statement. I’m sure he’s sick of all the “I agree with Nick” stuff. He holds all the cards and he knows it.

Various centre-left media sources seem to be constantly saying that Labour and the Lib Dems could and should form a progressive alliance and run the country together – most notably the Guardian, who have put all their eggs in one basket. This assumes that the Lib Dems will even want to do this. I just can’t see it happening without Labour winning the most amount of seats. If the Tories get more seats than Labour, Clegg will not prop up a Labour government that have basically just been beaten. The only way Labour could win the most seats is if Lib Dem voters do vote tactically, but I can’t see Clegg’s hordes of converted followers really engaging with it on that kind of level. In any case, a formal coalition or alliance with either party risks splitting the Lib Dems. I can’t see Clegg making any formal deal.

This would only be remotely feasible if we had a cast iron guarantee that the Liberals would not back the Tories in a hung Parliament. And that we are most certainly not going to get. Indeed, given the number of local councils in which the Libs and Tories are in coalition, I think this would be an extremely risky thing to do.

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour should withdraw candidates in Lib-Con marginals http://bit.ly/abFJsY

Labour and the Liberals should have formed an electoral pact like this generations ago. At a bare minimum both parties should abandon their asinine objection to tactical voting. It is crazy to split the progressive vote like this, and a pact would be in the interests of both parties.

The notion that fielding separate candidates in all 600+ constituencies gives voters real choice is wrongheaded. Under the current electoral system that ‘choice’ is an illusion.

In safe seats there is no choice at all and in marginals the only real choice is between the two leading parties. It is best to recognise that fact, and then to get the most possible out of the system by tactical voting and the strategic withdrawal of candidates in certain constituencies; then try to introduce electoral reform as soon as possible so that these kind of tactics become unnecessary.

Confused of Croydon writes:

“This would only be remotely feasible if we had a cast iron guarantee that the Liberals would not back the Tories in a hung Parliament.”

Obviously we want to avoid a Tory government. But, with respect, what creates a greater risk of David Cameron as prime minister on Friday: (a) the Tory wins in a Tory/Liberal marginal, or (b) the Liberal wins?

..we may not know whether the Lib Dems will prop up a Tory government, but we know that any Tory candidate definitely will.

Why can’t people just vote for the party they support/support the ideas of and then the numbers will show who got the most votes.

Democracy there’s an idea…

@Anon E Mouse

Because if people vote that way then you get an MP that the majority of voters oppose. That’s not called “democracy” it’s called an archaic, dysfunctional electoral system.

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